See. Its very easy to misunderstand these things.
Lets look at a hypothetical case. Steven Waugh leaves Australia and Katich, Clarke, Hodge etc are in line to replace. To say that one doesn't see any of them turning out to be of the caliber of Waugh is not to decry them or their merits as international cricketers. It is just to emphasise that waugh was not an ordinary middle order batsman.
When a country is lucky enough to have three/four truly great players playing at the same time, its not uncommon to find that the replacements aren't always another three four truly great players. It did not happen with the Indian spinners, It did not happen with the Australian attack of the recent past and it is not going to happen , in my humble opinion, with India;s middle order.
As Anil rightly puts it, Ganguly's spot may be filled. Thats because Ganguly is not of the same caliber as Sachin and Dravid while Laxman is very close to the top too irrespective to the gap in statistics.
Sure India will find Test class batsmen. All those you mention have the potential to be successful Test batsmen but these three guys they are following are a bit more than just successful Test batsmen.
The second point I was making was that if you have to replace retiring cricketers, you will generally have an idea where the replacements will come from. A surprise replacement, meaning someone completely unknown coming and taking the game by storm is not a daily happening. By and large the pool is well known. So is the case with India. The pool IS of the already tried kaif and Yuvraj, the less tried (mainly in the limited overs game) lot of Sharma, Raina, Kohli and Badrinath. One could add a couple more. Now from whatever one has seen of these youngsters, they all look to be competent cricketers but only Rohit Sharma has shown the complete set of skills (all round game, solidity of defense, width of stroke play, temperament etc) that makes one feel he is a notch higher. The others have not.
This doesn't make them redundant. Its just putting things in perspective.
I remember writing on this forum a couple of years back about the deficiencies of Yuvraj's technique and how that would hamper his career particularly in the longer version of the game. I was almost blasted off the thread. Yuvraj was the flavour of the time. Just as Badrinath is of today and Rohit Sharma was yesterday.
I wish Indian fans would not just get swayed by emotions so much that it makes it difficult to look more objectively at their heroes. I am not saying all are like that but so many are. There is nothing about one's favorite hero, and even at my late age I have mine, that should make one not be able to discuss him objectively warts and all. It enhances their appeal according to me. It humanises them. Why must we find ourselves able to only deify our heroes because the minute we do that anyone who doesn't appears to be indulging in blasphemy
I remember writing here, at the time when Chappell was still the coach - so it is quite some time ago - that Raina looks very promising and is the most promising of the youngsters on the horizon. No one seemed to agree. That guy too disappointed, never extending his good starts to bigger innings. Finally, Chappell was sacked and he got tagged as someone whom Chappell favoured unduly and he went into the clouds. Now he has emerged again, added temperament to his abundant stroke play and most importantly got runs. He is back in contention. But the point is that he is the same player.
His game is essentially the same as is his technique.
One should be able to look beyond the scores and the media hype and just look at a batsman shaping up to quality bowling and you get an idea about him.
I dont form my opinions based on scores or the headlines and that is what finds me at odds so often with Indian fans and , surprise surprise, not so often with those from Australia England and New= Zealand
I have leant to live with that